BALTIMORE-The first year Saul Ewing held its Mid-Atlantic Real Estate Conference the mood, understandably, was grim. The year: 2009. The month: September. This year’s event, held last week, cleared that very low bar and then some, reports Howard Majev, the co-chair of the firm’s real estate practice and the planner of the conference. “People were much more optimistic and confident about the real estate market,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “The general impression received is that although the commercial real estate markets aren't totally healthy, they've gained a lot of traction.”

Working the room in between sessions, Majev gathered that multifamily was leading the recovery (not that he didn’t know that already), that financing had become more available (ditto) and, in fact, that capital is chasing deals, especially those by larger institutional capital (ibid). The speakers provided similar insights, albeit with far more nuance.

Rick J. Band, senior vice president of CAPREIT, in Rockville, MD, reported the company is investing in stable opportunities in the Midwest and Southeast and blending them to provide a solid return for investors. The sweet spot of the moment are B and B+ class multi-family dwellings in secondary and tertiary markets, such as Charlotte, NC. John M. Prugh, president and chief executive officer of locally-based Alex. Brown Realty, is focusing on the suburbs and secondary markets—but also staying away from markets where unemployment is high and growth is slow.

The keynote speaker was Richard S. Sokolov, chief operating officer of Simon Property Group. Despite headlines heralding the death of retail malls for years, he noted the space is more than holding its own. One answer for Simon, he said, has been to make sure each property has a market to serve. Every project must create franchise value and take market share from competitors.

If sounds likes a mixed bag of opinions and strategies and insights, that is because they are. No one promised a uniformly even recovery, Majev said, echoing Owen J. Rouse Jr., who moderated the Near Term Future panel and is senior vice president of Manekin LLC in Columbia, MD. As Rouse put it: “The recovery is lumpy. Live with it.”

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Erika Morphy

Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.